Silver and Black Don’t Always Go Well Together

As a fervent supporter of the Oakland Raiders, I love the color combination of silver and black. My girlfriend doesn’t understand it, but I happen to think the Raiders uniforms are the coolest in the NFL. After all, there’s a reason why the basic design has remained virtually unchanged for more than 40 years. OK, they didn’t win ESPN Page 2’s uni-bracket of 2003. (That honor goes to my college football team, the Michigan Wolverines.)

But they were close. And anyway, the point is that silver and black is usually a good combination (just not this time).

On Tuesday, February 3, I was backing my silver Hyundai Acceent (affectionately known as ”Raider”) out of its parking space at work to go to lunch. It’s something I’ve done dozens if not hundreds of times. This time, however, my foot slipped a bit on the brake, my car went back a bit too far, and the next thing I knew, my back bumper came into contact with the front driver side of my boss’s SUV. Damn.

I couldn’t have been going five miles an hour, but it was enough to feel the contact. And when I got out to check my rear bumper, I was unfortunately greeted by a glaring black scratch where Raider’s silver paint had been scraped away.’

There’s no good way to tell someone you hit there car, and no excuse that doesn’t make you sound like an idiot. But I ‘fessed up and was ready to cover whatever damage I may have caused.

He took it in stride, and made sure to jokingly greet me as “Crash” the next morning as he handed me the estimate to fix his car. Apparently the damage wasn’t too noticeable until he tried to open his car door and it made an awful, nails-on-a-chalkboard screeching sound.

I later got my estimate, which was about half as expensive as his. Fortunately, since we’re both insured by the same company, my deductible was waived and my insurance is going to cover both car repairs.

So, while I wasn’t spared the embarrassment, at least I was spared the expense.